1.12 Crore Children Administered Deworming Tablets

Around 1.12 crore children and adolescents across Andhra Pradesh have been administered deworming tablets as part of the National Deworming Day programme, health minister Satya Kumar Yadav said.

He pointed out that from 2016, the deworming campaign is being conducted twice a year to protect children from soil-transmitted worm infections. As a result, the prevalence of soil-transmitted worm infections in the state has declined to 34 per cent from 36 per cent, as recorded by the National Centre for Disease Control in 2019.

The deworming tablets are administered to children and adolescents at anganwadi centres, schools, residential schools, junior colleges, Industrial Training Institutes, diploma, and degree colleges, and nursing colleges.

The minister said the state government had procured 1.24 crore albendazole 400 mg tablets for the campaign. Children who could not take the tablet on Friday would be given another opportunity on October 5.